Vegetable, fruit exports target for 2019 reachable: experts

Hanoi – With good results seen in the first seven months of this year, experts forecast that the revenue target of 4.2 billion USD in vegetable and fruit exports for 2019 is reachable.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Earnings from vegetable and fruit exports in the first seven months of the year are estimated at 2.3 billion USD, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Processing and Market Development Authority (AgroTrade).

China remained the biggest export market of Vietnam in the reviewed period, accounting for 71.9 percent of the market share. Vietnam’s vegetable and fruit exports to China reached 1.5 billion USD.

The General Department of Vietnam Customs reported that high growth was also recorded in many other markets in the first half of 2019, including Indonesia (339 percent), Italy (208 percent), Laos (161.8 percent), and Hong Kong (133.3 percent).

Last year, fruit and vegetable export revenue reached 3.8 billion USD, up 8.8 percent year on year.

Experts held that the EU is a promising market for Vietnamese vegetables and fruits, despite strict requirements in quality and food safety.

In the first half of 2019, Vietnam shipped 73.1 million USD worth of vegetables and fruits to the EU market.

Pham Tuan Long, deputy head of the agro-forestry-aquatic product import-export division under the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import-Export Department, said average vegetable output of Vietnam reaches 14.6 million tonnes per year, while that of fruits is 7 million tonnes per year.

In order to optimise great potential of foreign markets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are working together to open markets for Vietnamese longan, litchee, rambutan to the Republic of Korea, Brazil, Argentina, and Vietnamese star apple to the US, grapefruit and custard apple to China.

To date, nine Vietnamese fruits have been allowed to be officially imported into the Chinese market, namely dragon fruit, water melon, litchee, longan, banana, mango, jackfruit, rambutan and mangosteen.